I’ll Be Your Best Friend, and You’ll Be My….Valentine
Romy & Michele, "E-Mail My Heart", Swiftie rollerblading, A*Teens reunion, Lil Jon meditation
So speaking of “Big Girls Don’t Cry” by Fergie (the subject line lol), IMAGINE having Milo Ventimiglia as your love interest in the music video and then going home to your bf Josh Duhamel??? Some hearts just get all the right breaks.
Anyway, here’s last week’s newsletter ICYMI. (Nicstalgia turned two!)
In this issue:
🍒 Nicstalgia updates
💖 “E-Mail My Heart”, Artificial Love, pop culture valentines, Oops! I accidentally spent $36,000 on goop’s Valentine’s Day Gift Guide items!
📲 Chloë Sevigny, Romy & Michele sequel, AG Disney dolls, A*Teens reunion, Beyoncé haircare, LVP new show, Lil Jon meditation app, Céline x Taylor (sorry lol), Richard Simmons comeback, Missy Elliott being iconic per usual
Support Nicstalgia with a paid subscription for less than a VHS tape of Richard Simmons’s Sweatin’ To The Oldies 3.
Huge thank you to Nicstalgia supporters who I will love forever: Janine, Marie, Liv, and Mitra!💐💐💐
🍒 Nicstalgia Updates
I have more episodes with guests coming! If it’s a good fit and you want to come on the show, please get in touch.
I have more presentation-based episodes coming! They are very research-heavy and thus have taken me more time to complete than anticipated. If there are any subjects you would like to see me cover, I’m all ears.
I’m exploring what the future of Nicstalgia looks like. I’ve fully made the mindset transition from Content Creator to Cultural Critic, and I already feel so much more at peace! To echo my sentiment from last week, Nicstalgia is a world. It much more closely resembles Spice World than it does a podcast. How will video content evolve? How will platforms and distribution change? How can the show be more creative or collaborative? In-person things? Idk!!!!!! But I’ve been thinking about it all. If you are too, let’s talk.
If you’re among our first 200 YouTube subscribers, I will be eternally grateful! You already know that I really don’t care about numbers anymore, but alas, shameless, endless, soul-sucking self-promotion is the name of the game. *Cries* I just want to keep meeting really cool people and having fun conversations!!!!!!
💖 I’ll Be Your Best Friend, and You’ll Be My….Valentine
I love Valentine’s Day! It’s not about whether you’re in a relationship or single 😇 or whether it’s a Hallmark holiday. To me, it’s about unabashed, enthusiastic, shameless expression of what you love, admire, and appreciate. (This is me every day tbh?!)
I love love, I love friendship, I love family, I love community, I love words of affirmation, I love silly love songs, I love the cute little 90s valentines that you would personalize for all your classmates (and you’d pick your favorites for the people you liked best HAHA). I love chocolate covered strawberries. I love Baci and Novi Cuadro Italian chocolates. I love the candy hearts that taste like chalk. I love dry prosecco. I love flowers and also bouquets made of dollar bills. The list truly never ends!!!!!!!
🎥 Metrograph has cool movie screening series, and this one on Artificial Love, about Artificial Intelligence in love, piqued my interest. Electric Dreams (1984) looks absolutely insane, and I need to see it.
💌 I’m on Britney Spears’s email list (obviously), and now through 2/14, you get a free Valentine's Day e-card with any purchase. I presume there is a freelancer who’s contracted for work by UMG – btw we’re not getting into the UMG/TikTok music debacle – who designs these emails and writes copy, but seriously, with such a devoted fan base, most of these campaigns – from both an aesthetic and product offering standpoint – fall short. As Director of Britney Spears Marketing, I would have at least made the email subject “E-Mail My Heart”. HUGE missed opportunity!!!!!! (Btw I’m open to full time work in marketing/communications as well as brand consulting 🙏)
Also please note that when songwriter Eric Foster White was asked by Slate what he would change about “E-Mail My Heart” if he could? “Not write it?” Savage. When asked if he ever heard it performed live or encountered it on the radio, he responded, “Thankfully, no.” Ruthless. But does he still get royalties from the song? “The gift that keeps on giving.” Lmao this guy.
Here are my pop culture Valentines from the last two years. People always get a kick out of these!!!! Feel free to share and tag me!!!! Click on the pics to head to my IG if it shows up too small on your screen here.
I enjoy satirizing goop (the brand, intentionally lowercase) as a coping mechanism from my peak 2010s NYC Toxic Girlboss/Boutique Fitfluencer™ era. Consider this my latest art project: My top 14 favorite things from the goop Valentine’s Day gift guide and their financial implications. Know anyone willing to pick up this tab?? 😇
📲 I’m Just a Simple Girl in a High-Tech Digital World
My fav things from the internet rn:
Chloë Sevigny talked to Rolling Stone recently about Feud: Capote vs. The Swans, the loss of individual style to signal identity as a part of a ‘rebellious milieu’ in NYC, and athleisure and dogs taking over the city. Though she’s a NYC It Girl, Chloë is a Connecticut Native! She said it would be her dream to open a vintage store in Provincetown, MA but has to wait til her son is 18 so he doesn’t grow up isolated. (It’s my dream to open a vintage store with Chloë Sevigny. It can be in Connecticut as a happy medium, near family and between the city and the beach.) It was killing me that the interviewer did not get Chloë’s train of thought re: Housewives. Since Nicstalgia is a source of cultural journalistic integrity (or that’s what I keep telling myself), I would like to clear the air. When recalling a housewife embroiled in a college admissions scandal, she was referring to Felicity Huffman on Desperate Housewives, not Lori Loughlin or the Real Housewives franchise.
One of my all-time favorite movies, Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion, is moving forward with a sequel!!!! I’m excited for this, and I instinctually think they will do a good job since the original writer will be connected to the project. One time I posted about R&M and Mona May and Mira Sorvino both responded. That’s like my version of getting knighted.
American Girl reveals new Disney Princess doll collection. You know what I realized after reading this? We’re not saving our American Girl dolls because they’ll be worth money one day. We’re saving them because we won’t be able to afford the ones that are still coming out! One hundred and twenty five United States Dollars???? Honey, we already have a Samantha Parkington at home.
The A*Teens reunited at Melodifestivalen 2024!!!!!! Didn’t know my soul needed this, but it did! Someone commented it was weird that they were singing over their baby voices, but like, they all look amazing and are extremely good looking; I’m not trying to get them out on a technicality here. I am also soooooo fascinated by the cultural stamina and endurance of ABBA and will one day do a study about their popularity as applied to the Diffusion of Innovations, i.e. insanely popular in the 70s, wicked passé in the 90s, a la Muriel’s Wedding (1994), wild nowstalgic resurgence with the A*Teens, now they’re holograms, etc. I went to Sweden five years ago (!!!) in January, and there were only about 3 hours of daylight (not exaggerating, sadly), so I regretfully did not get to see the ABBA Museum. Next time!
Beyoncé Teases Upcoming Haircare Brand Cécred – assuming pun was intended here. Pronounced like ‘sacred’, Cécred launches on 2/20. We’ve known this has been coming for almost a year, so I’m glad it’s (almost) finally here! I’m really excited to see more from a brand identity, creative presentation, and marketing perspective!
I haven’t watched Vanderpump Rules in years, with the exception of the #Scandoval episode and season reunions. (Yes, ‘reunions’ plural. There were three.) I might fire up Hulu again, despite its truly dumbfounding user interface and annoying-to-navigate menu, to tune into Lisa’s next episodic endeavor. Vanderpump Villa is an “unscripted” (quotations mine) docudrama set at Vanderpump’s luxury French chateau, Chateau Rosabelle. She runs a tight ship and hypothetically expects perfection from her hand-selected “world-class” staff members. (Quotations are People’s – I’m sure they’re very professional for reality TV stars.)
Lil Jon is allegedly releasing a guided meditation album on 2/16. Honestly, I would listen to an audiobook of him just saying ‘YEAH!’ and ‘OKAY!’ in his voice on repeat with healing frequencies in the background. Are we, as a society, taking our first steps toward healing???
Don’t get me started on the Céline/Taylor Grammy’s debacle. Jk here’s my (Céline superfan, reluctant pseudo-Swiftie) POV on it: Swift is the most calculated person in showbiz, extremely intentional about her every move. I can imagine “it’s all a blur” during such an exciting moment, but could Taylor not make eye contact for even (1) one-hundredth of a millisecond with the presenter – let alone when that person is the truly gifted/accomplished singer/living legend/angel on earth Céline Dion? Like this woman has not been able to physically move due to a debilitating autoimmune and neurological disease, and to be so blatantly ignored during her one public appearance in the last four years is preposterous, disrespectful, and above all, just really disappointing. And coming from someone who is currently – both financially and culturally – THE pinnacle of pop culture success? Sad. That hug backstage was staged; there is a photographer stationed there for everyone. (Props to Tree Paine though. No one works harder than Swift’s PR person.) That being said, I will be patiently awaiting the upcoming Celine documentary. Will I be attending Taylor Con? I’m not sure, ask me later. It was actually hilarious that I recently got served an IG ad to go to a Taylor-themed rollerblading morning (10am-12pm 🤨) at my childhood rollerblading spot. I actually would love to go….I’ll let you know next week if I do!
I’m so nostalgic about Richard Simmons and appreciate the impact he’s made on countless people’s lives. I saw an unauthorized documentary about him a few years ago, and it made it clear that thankfully, he is not being held captive in his house. He’s just scared of aging and not having people remember him as they always did. While (forgive the therapy speak) there appeared to be a clear lack of boundaries and enmeshment in his clients’ personal lives, he is incredibly empathetic to a fault; he takes on the pain, fear, and hurt of those he loves. He has been active on social media recently (don’t worry, I have Twitter notis turned on), which is shocking seeing as he has been notoriously removed from the public eye for like, ten years. I don’t like that he didn’t approve the alleged biopic being made about him, but I am interested to see what this comeback looks like. It makes me happy to see him have belief in himself and faith in what’s to come.
The one, the only, the visionary, the avant garde Missy Elliott found the original outfits that she wore in some of her most iconic videos, including “The Rain” (1997), “Hotboyz” (1999), “Sock it To Me” (1997), “Beep Me 911” (1998), and “Gossip Folks” (2002). (Video below.) These music videos were hugely influential to me, and even when celebrating anniversaries, Missy always keeps it fresh, current, and futuristic. (Never forget that I joined Twitter solely for the purpose of connecting with web3 people having a direct line of communication with Missy.)
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So many fun pieces in this newsletter! I love your art projects plus I am SO excited for a Romy & Michele’s High School Reunion sequel AND a Lil Jon guided meditation album.